{"id":8298,"date":"2022-03-19T21:25:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T02:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=8298"},"modified":"2022-03-19T21:28:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T02:28:47","slug":"the-power-of-pansies-and-the-peace-of-wild-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2022\/03\/the-power-of-pansies-and-the-peace-of-wild-things\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Pansies and The Peace of Wild Things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I AM PUSHING<\/span><\/strong> a rickety garden cart through Pepper\u2019s Greenhouses in Milton, Delaware, following behind my 91-year-old father as I have done in plant nurseries and gardens my entire life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Once when I was six, I tagged along on a fancy garden tour, shadowing my Dad so closely that I caught the wrath of a bee\u2019s nest he awakened as he forged ahead of me through a narrow gap in a privet hedge. One sting on my tummy under a loose-fitting summer sleeveless blouse and one on my bare freckled arm earned me a place in his arms for the trip back to the car.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today it is cold and drizzly, a maddening reminder of the fickle fate of March vacationers. My husband and I have been luxuriating in the past three days of 60- and 70-degree weather, using our little respite from real life to explore the Delmarva peninsula during the day while visiting with my Dad over coffee in the mornings and family meals in the evenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the wild ponies and windy dunes of Assateague Island to the salt marshes and Loblolly pine barrens of Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge and Cape Henlopen State Park, the hours of walking outdoors have been thoroughly restorative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yet the turn in the weather provides a good excuse to go plant-perusing (and shopping) with Dad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have filled the top basket in the cart with six-packs of pansies. Pansies were the first flower my Dad let me pick from his gardens when I was young, and I loved to bring them to my teachers at school, my fist nearly crushing the fragile stems wrapped in wet paper towel and aluminum foil before I ever reached the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here I spy my favorite Frizzle-Zizzle mix amidst a sea of color. Flats and flats of pansies line the long corridor that connects the maze of greenhouses at Pepper\u2019s, each a domino of treasure: one housing perennials, another annuals; herbs to the left, vegetable seedlings to the right; woody perennials and deciduous shrubs around the corner, fruit trees further on down the line. But the pansies merit a special spot in March \u2014 the plant nursery’s equivalent to Easter or Halloween candy in the grocery store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some people scoff at pansies, or worse, ignore their ubiquitous presence in early spring, thinking them mundane. But I will always love them and their little viola and johnny-jump-up cousins, especially now that I know how many truly beautiful varieties are available if you look hard enough (or decide to start them from seed<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Curly petals, sweet scents, unusual colors, artful veining and Jackson Pollock blotches \u2013 their charms are many. Not to mention their habits: They tolerate the cold, show up early in spring, and bloom profusely as long as you keep picking them ( a win-win). Plus, the petals are edible!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Erin Benzakein at Floret Flower Farm<\/a> (my flower hero) even grows them as cut flowers, lengthening the stems to up to 15 inches by growing them under row cover. I might try that. But even without long stems, the shorties make long-lasting posies in a creamer or small glass jar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dad and I have come to a crossroads. To the right is the hellebore and snowdrop greenhouse. To the left is a wooden door leading out to a small yard filled with dogwoods. I follow Dad out to the dogwoods and the drizzle, my cart rattling now with a ceramic flower vase I\u2019ve nabbed as we passed through the vast houseplant wing. The owner of Pepper\u2019s stops to greet Dad, who is a frequent visitor. Everyone knows him there and treats him warmly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theoretically we are just browsing, but as Dad begins to tell me about the merits of this and that dogwood (his current favorite is Appalachian Spring), I start looking at the tags on the Kousa dogwoods (Cornus kousa)<\/em>, the pretty Chinese dogwoods that are less susceptible to the anthracnose disease that has attacked and killed many native dogwoods (Cornus florida<\/em>). Dad mentions he has been looking for a Kousa called \u201cNorth Pole\u201d as a possible replacement for the Japanese maple at my mother\u2019s grave. I bend down and look at all the tags, moving pots around on the puddly tarmac to peer in. But no North Pole. We turn to leave and I notice a handsome dogwood set aside on a bench with a \u201csold\u201d sign on it. Dad asks me what the variety name is on the tag, and I report that it\u2019s a \u201cSnow Tower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it!\u201d He says excitedly, laughing, realizing that in trying to recall the name of the variety he\u2019d read about, he\u2019d settled on North Pole when really the name was Snow Tower. Quickly I see that he is disappointed though, as this one is sold. I tell him I\u2019m sure that I\u2019ve seen another Snow Tower in all the tags I looked at a few minutes ago. I go back into the sea of pots and soon we have three Snow Towers to look at. We debate the merits of each and discuss how each might be pruned, finally choosing our favorite. I tell Dad I would like to buy it as my contribution to the gravesite landscaping (Mom is in with a bunch of other relatives!), and soon we are stuffing it, along with the pansies, some Thai Basil, the flower vase, and a few bottles of deer repellent (for me, cheaper in Delaware than on the Island) into the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not our biggest haul ever, but a good day. A stop at the Food Lion to pick up a can of baked beans to go with the BBQ pork Dad has in the slow-cooker for dinner, and we\u2019re home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo of Dad taken back in November before <\/em>the wedding<\/a> by fabulous photographer <\/em>Maria DeForrest.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is a day I want to bottle up and bring back to the Vineyard with me along with the pansies. Is that possible? Can you carry over the good feelings from one day, one week, to the next? I wonder, can you actually bank the comfort and joy of these days, storing them up to fall back on when you need them, here on the sharp side of reality where pure evil looms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One morning in Delaware I toppled out of bed early, grabbed my coffee, and found a quiet nook to squinch up my knees, rest my laptop on my pajamas, and dial into a virtual meeting of my fellow travelers in sobriety. One of the first things I heard that came bounding through the fog of sleepiness was the phrase \u201cspiritual armor.\u201d I smiled at that and knew right away what the speaker was referring to \u2013 the idea that all the work we do on a daily basis (from doing the next right thing to letting go, from praying to forgiving, from checking our motives to practicing acceptance) makes us better able to handle the wonky stuff when it threatens to throw us off the beam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#pansiesforUkraine<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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There is such a thing as building up a spiritual reserve, keeping our spiritual muscles flexed. Not only has this idea been hammered into me, but I\u2019ve experienced the benefits of it again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same way, I\u2019m using those days in Delaware \u2013 both the relaxed time spent in nature with my husband and the precious time spent with my Dad, as well as my sister \u2013 as a deep well of comfort right now. Dipping into that well is a tool, a deliberate practice of gratitude, that feels especially important to use right now. I (like all of us) must focus my energy on what\u2019s good and delightful and joyous in life \u2014 or despair, as Wendell Berry<\/a> says in The Peace of Wild Things<\/em> (below), will grow in me, and in us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Peace of Wild Things<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When despair for the world grows in me<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and I wake in the night at the least sound<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in fear of what my life and my children\u2019s lives may be,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I go and lie down where the wood drake<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I come into the peace of wild things<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

who do not tax their lives with forethought<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I feel above me the day-blind stars<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

waiting with their light. For a time<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Wendell Berry<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LOOKING FOR RECIPES?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit cookthevineyard.com<\/a> and sign up for the free weekly newsletter<\/a>. (Something I do as part of my day job.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you arrived here from the internet and would like to subscribe to the Sixburnersue blog, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I AM PUSHING a rickety garden cart through Pepper\u2019s Greenhouses in Milton, Delaware, following behind my 91-year-old father as I have done in plant nurseries and gardens my entire life. (Once when I was six, I tagged along on a fancy garden tour, shadowing my Dad so closely that I caught the wrath of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[168,226,181,149,163,164,162],"tags":[227,223],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8298"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8319,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298\/revisions\/8319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}